Tennis ball retriever with hinged gate

ABSTRACT

A tennis ball retriever having a handle in the form of a yoke and a pair of ground engaging rings interconnected by spaced bars and a hinged gate to provide for access of tennis balls picked up through the spaced bars after rolling action of the rings along the ground. A Y-shaped handle is provided to facilitate use of the tennis ball retriever and to provide a stand therefore.

United States Patent Falitz Sept. 2, 1975 [54] TENNIS BALL RETRIEVER WITH HINGED 2,544,281 3/1951 Seil 248/130 GATE 3,215,293 11/1965 Kelly et a1 294 19 A x 3,227,298 1/1966 Shoemaker.... 294/19 A X Inventor: Leonard Falitl, 212-30 23 3,804,449 4 1974 Falitz 294 19 A Bayside, N.Y. l 1360 3,820,836 6/1974 Seewagen et al. 294/19 A [22] Filed: Apr. 17, 1974 Primary Examiner-Richard A. Schacher PP 461,627 Assistant Examiner-Johnny D. Cherry [52] US. Cl. 294/19 A; 214/356 [57] ABSTRACT [51] B65F 3/00 A tennis ball retriever having a handle in the form of [58] Field of Search 294/19 A, 57, 58;

56 328 214/356 220/94 R 248/130 163 a yoke and a pair of ground engagmg rmgs interconnected by spaced bars and a hinged gate to provide for access of tennis balls picked up through the spaced [56] References C'ted bars after rolling action of the rings along the ground. UNITED STATES PATENTS A Y-shaped handle is provided to facilitate use of the 704,848 7/1902 Minton 294/19 A tennis ball retriever and to provide a stand therefore. 1,877,464 9/1932 Huston... 1,965,726 7 1934 Smith 248/130 x l Clalm, 4 Drawmg F lgllres TENNIS BALL RETRIEVER WITH IIINGED GATE REFERENCE RELATED APPLICATION This application is related to application Ser. No. 312,800 filed Dec. 7, 1972, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,804,449, for TENNIS BALL RETRIEVER.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to a tennis ball retriever and more particularly to a device for retrieving tennis balls by rolling a mechanism along the ground. During the playing of tennis and especially during practice and teaching sessions, numerous tennis balls are used for demonstration and practice strokes. The picking up of these tennis balls by hand usually requires excessive bending, which will tire the player and make learning or instructing tennis more fatiguing and less rewarding.

2. Description of the Prior Art Various devices have in the past been developed as tennis ball retrievers. In the Stap U.S. Pat. No. 3,371,950, there is disclosed a tennis ball retriever which requires the successive pressing down of the receptacle over the tennis balls. This has two great disadvantages, one of which is that the device still requires a stooping and bending operation. The second disadvantage is that the Stap device requires a variety of rods which are pressed over the ball and which in actual use generally through the tilting of the receptacle until an edge thereof strikes the tennis court causes the marring of the surface thereof to an undesired degree. Retrievers for various ball shaped objects such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,485,398, 3,227,298 and 3,215,293 have also been deivsed but have likewise proved unsatisfactory because of the excessive weight of these devices as compared to the surface of a tennis court, which would cause marring of the surface of the court.

In applicants copending application there is disclosed a tennis ball retriever which overcomes the aforesaid disadvantages but requires the removal of a rod for access to the picked up tennis balls.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art devices by providing an extremely lightweight tennis ball retriever having spaced bars through which the tennis balls are squeezed above the surface of the ground, with the only contact with the ground being by way of a pair of spaced rings. A hinged gate for access to the interior is provided. The construction of this invention features a Y-shaped handle providing a stand for the tennis ball retriever while also facilitating the use of the tennis ball retriever.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a tennis ball retriever which has a hinged gate for facilitating access to the pick-up balls, that is light in weight and simple of construction, capable of being manufactured out of readily available materials and which is efficient in use.

These. together with the various ancillary objects and features of the invention which will become apparent as the following description proceeds, are attained by this tennis ball retriever, a preferred embodiment of which has been shown in the accompanying drawing by way of example only, wherein:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of the tennis ball retriever;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged partial sectional view of the tennis ball retriever shown picking up a ball;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view thereof; and

FIG. 4 is an enlarged detail sectional view showing the details of the gate and locking mechanism.

With continuing reference to the accompanying drawing wherein like reference numeral 10 generally designates a tennis ball retriever constructed in accordance with the concept of the present invention. The tennis ball retriever 10 includes a Y-shaped handle 12 in the form of a yoke 14 having a pair of diverging U- shaped arms 16 and 17 which are adapted to form a stand as shown in FIG. 3. The yoke includes a pair of parallel legs 18 and 20 which have a pair of discs 22 and 24 rotatably attached thereto as by stub shafts 26, 28 or the like. A pair of spaced broken rings 30 and 32 are provided and are rigidly connected to the discs 22 and 24 by radius rods 34 and 36 which have concentric rings 38, 39, 40, 41 and 42, 43, 44 and 45 attached thereto. The rings are spaced from each other a distance less than the diameter of a tennis ball, so that no tennis ball can pass therebetween.

A plurality of spaced bars 50 are welded to the inner surface of the rings 30 and 32 and extend therebetween. The bars 50 are spaced from each other a distance which is slightly less than the diameter of a tennis ball T. The tennis ball is slightly squeezed as the tennis ball retriever is passed along the ground and passes into the interior of the tennis ball retriever through adjacent bars 50 in the direction.

In order to permit access into the interior of the tennis ball retriever, a hinged gate 60 is provided which is pivotable about the ring 42 by means of hinge 62. The gate includes two spaced bars 64 and 66 and ring sections 68 and 71 which complete broken rings 30 and 32. A latching mechanism is provided for normally holding the gate 60 closed. This latch 70 includes a plate 72 having a hole 74 for receiving a bolt 76 slidably attached to bar 66 by brackets 78 and 80. A spring 82 connected to bracket and bolt 76 normally urges the bolt into hole 74. Manual manipulation of the bolt 76 in the direction of arrow 84 can cause release of bolt 76.

In use, the tennis ball retriever is rolled along the ground, picking up balls by squeezing them throughout the adjacent bars 50. When it is desired to remove the balls from the retriever, the hinged gate 60 may be pivoted and all of the balls removed. The tennis ball retriever may be stood on end as shown in FIG. 3 for facilitating access to the balls.

A latitude of modification, substitution and change is intended in the foregoing disclosure, and in some instances some features of the invention will be employed Without a corresponding use of other features.

I claim:

1. A tennis ball retriever comprising a Y-shaped handle having a pair of divergent U-shaped handle members for forming a stand, a pair of spaced mounting discs rotatably attached to said handle, a plurality of sets of rings concentrically disposed about each of said discs, each of said rings of each set of rings being spaced from each other a distance less than the diameter of a tennis ball, mounting means connecting said of ring segments for closing said broken rings, mcans pivotally mounting said gate to one of said outermost rings, and latch means for holding said gate closed secured to the other of said outermost rings. 

1. A tennis ball retriever comprising a Y-shaped handle having a pair of divergent U-shaped handle members for forming a stand, a pair of spaced mounting discs rotatably attached to said handle, a plurality of sets of rings concentrically disposed about each of said discs, each of said rings of each set of rings being spaced from each other a distance less than the diameter of a tennis ball, mounting means connecting said rings to said discs, a broken ring secured to the outermost of the rings of each set of rings, a plurality of bars extending between and interconnecting said broken rings, said bars being spaced from each other less than the diameter of a tennis ball, and a gate including a pair of ring segments for closing said broken rings, means pivotally mounting said gate to one of said outermost rings, and latch means for holding said gate closed secured to the other of said outermost rings. 